Sir: David Carlton writes: 'Let us remember, too, that any
British citizen living or working in Libya must have had some notion of the , risks involved and accordingly is not entitled to expect to be rescued now or in the future at too substantial a cost to British interests.' Am I alone in finding this attitude appalling? You might as well say to a coal miner that if he is involved in a pit disaster and it happens to be inconvenient to get him out we should just leave him to die — it's a high risk business and he entered the profession with his eyes open. But quite apart from that, doesn't Mr Carlton's policy of callousness apply even more to the police? Yvonne Fletcher's murder was abominable, but I don't see that it's worse than that of a British engineer in Libya. It was possibly less reprehensible, for WPC Fletcher's job was to confront criminals.
Unfortunately modern Britons (among whom I fear David Carlton and his namesake Carlton-Brown of the FO must be included) seem to regard murders in Belfast or Africa as somehow less evil than in genteel St James's Square. I prefer Palmerston's attitude: Don Pacifico, a fraudulent old dago with shaky claims to British citizenship, and on top of that engaged in trade (ugh) in far off Athens, nevertheless got protection as sterling as if he were Queen Victoria confronted by an armed Fenian in her boudoir at Osborne.
Bernard Marmion
Women and Families for Defence, 1 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2
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